This invention relates to an electrode assembly for an electrochemical fuel cell that includes an article formed of flexible graphite sheet that is fluid permeable and has enhanced isotropy with respect to thermal and electrical conductivity. The electrode assembly also includes an ion exchange membrane having catalyst metal selectively loaded thereon.
An ion exchange membrane fuel cell, more specifically a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, produces electricity through the chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in the air. Within the fuel cell, an anode and cathode surround a polymer electrolyte. A catalyst material stimulates hydrogen molecules to split into hydrogen atoms and through an internal load at the membrane the atoms each split into a proton and an electron. The electrons generated are utilized as electrical energy. The protons migrate through the electrolyte and combine with oxygen from the air and electrons to form water.
A PEM fuel cell is advantageously formed of a membrane electrode assembly sandwiched between two graphite flow field plates. Conventionally, the membrane electrode assembly consists of electrodes (anode and cathode) with a thin layer of a catalyst material, particularly platinum or a platinum group metal coated on graphite or carbon particles, bonded to either side of a proton exchange membrane disposed between the electrodes. In operation, hydrogen flows through channels in one of the flow field plates to the anode, where the catalyst promotes its separation into hydrogen atoms and thereafter into protons and electrons. Air flows through the channels in the other flow field plate to the cathode, where the oxygen in the air attracts the protons through the proton exchange membrane and the electrons through the circuit, which join to form water. Since electrons cannot pass through the PEM, they travel through the anode, through a circuit in which the electricity is utilized, and back to the cathode. The air stream on the cathode side removes the water formed by combination of the hydrogen and oxygen. Combinations of such fuel cells are used in a fuel cell stack to provide the desired electrical power.
One limiting factor to the more widespread use of PEM fuel cells is the cost of the catalyst material. Metals such as platinum and the other platinum group metals are relatively expensive, especially as compared to the other elements of the cell, such as the graphite flow field plates. In conventional fuel cells, the catalyst material is bonded to the PEM or electrodes in a non-selective manner. That is, the catalyst material is distributed relatively uniformly on the opposed surfaces of the PEM, with result that catalyst deployment is not as efficient as possible.
Graphites are made up of layer planes of hexagonal arrays or networks of carbon atoms. These layer planes of hexagonally arranged carbon atoms are substantially flat and are oriented or ordered so as to be substantially parallel and equidistant to one another. The substantially flat, parallel equidistant sheets or layers of carbon atoms, usually referred to as basal planes, are linked or bonded together and groups thereof are arranged in crystallites. Highly ordered graphites consist of crystallites of considerable size: the crystallites being highly aligned or oriented with respect to each other and having well ordered carbon layers. In other words, highly ordered graphites have a high degree of preferred crystallite orientation. It should be noted that graphites possess anisotropic structures and thus exhibit or possess many properties that are highly directional e.g. thermal and electrical conductivity and fluid diffusion. Briefly, graphites may be characterized as laminated structures of carbon, that is, structures consisting of superposed layers or laminae of carbon atoms joined together by weak van der Waals forces. In considering the graphite structure, two axes or directions are usually noted, to wit, the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d axis or direction and the xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d axes or directions. For simplicity, the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d axis or direction may be considered as the direction perpendicular to the carbon layers. The xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d axes or directions may be considered as the directions parallel to the carbon layers or the directions perpendicular to the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction. The graphites suitable for manufacturing flexible graphite possess a very high degree of orientation.
As noted above, the bonding forces holding the parallel layers of carbon atoms together are only weak van der Waals forces. Natural graphites can be treated so that the spacing between the superposed carbon layers or laminae can be appreciably opened up so as to provide a marked expansion in the direction perpendicular to the layers, that is, in the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction and thus form an expanded or intumesced graphite structure in which the laminar character of the carbon layers is substantially retained.
Graphite flake which has been greatly expanded and more particularly expanded so as to have a final thickness or xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction dimension which is as much as about 80 or more times the original xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction dimension can be formed without the use of a binder into cohesive or integrated flexible graphite sheets of expanded graphite, e.g. webs, papers, strips, tapes, or the like. The formation of graphite particles which have been expanded to have a final thickness or xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d dimension which is as much as about 80 times the original xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction dimension into integrated flexible sheets by compression, without the use of any binding material is believed to be possible due to the excellent mechanical interlocking, or cohesion which is achieved between the voluminously expanded graphite particles.
In addition to flexibility, the sheet material, as noted above, has also been found to possess a high degree of anisotropy with respect to thermal and electrical conductivity and fluid diffusion, comparable to the natural graphite starting material due to orientation of the expanded graphite particles substantially parallel to the opposed faces of the sheet resulting from very high compression, e.g. roll pressing. Sheet material thus produced has excellent flexibility, good strength and a very high degree of orientation.
Briefly, the process of producing flexible, binderless anisotropic graphite sheet material, e.g. web, paper, strip, tape, foil, mat, or the like, comprises compressing or compacting under a predetermined load and in the absence of a binder, expanded graphite particles which have a xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction dimension which is as much as about 80 or more times that of the original particles so as to form a substantially flat, flexible, integrated graphite sheet. The expanded graphite particles that generally are worm-like or vermiform in appearance, once compressed, will maintain the compression set and alignment with the opposed major surfaces of the sheet. The density and thickness of the sheet material can be varied by controlling the degree of compression. The density of the sheet material can be within the range of from about 0.08 g/cc to about 2.0 g/cc. The flexible graphite sheet material exhibits an appreciable degree of anisotropy due to the alignment of graphite particles parallel to the major opposed, parallel surfaces of the sheet, with the degree of anisotropy increasing upon roll pressing of the sheet material to increased density. In roll pressed anisotropic sheet material, the thickness, i.e. the direction perpendicular to the opposed, parallel sheet surfaces comprises the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction and the directions ranging along the length and width, i.e. along or parallel to the opposed, major surfaces comprises the xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d directions and the thermal, electrical and fluid diffusion properties of the sheet are very different, by orders of magnitude, for the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d directions.
This very considerable difference in properties, i.e. anisotropy, which is directionally dependent, can be disadvantageous in some applications. For example, in gasket applications where flexible graphite sheet is used as the gasket material and in use is held tightly between metal surfaces, the diffusion of fluid, e.g. gases or liquids, occurs more readily parallel to and between the major surfaces of the flexible graphite sheet. It would, in most instances, provide for greater gasket performance, if the resistance to fluid flow parallel to the major surfaces of the graphite sheet (xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d direction) were increased, even at the expense of reduced resistance to fluid diffusion flow transverse to the major faces of the graphite sheet (xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction). With respect to electrical properties, the resistivity of anisotropic flexible graphite sheet is high in the direction transverse to the major surfaces (xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction) of the flexible graphite sheet, and very substantially less in the direction parallel to and between the major faces of the flexible graphite sheet (xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d direction). In applications such as fluid flow field plates for fuel cells and seals for fuel cells, it would be of advantage if the electrical resistance transverse to the major surfaces of the flexible graphite sheet (xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction) were decreased, even at the expense of an increase in electrical resistivity in the direction parallel to the major faces of the flexible graphite sheet (xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d direction).
With respect to thermal properties, the thermal conductivity of a flexible graphite sheet in a direction parallel to the upper and lower surfaces of the flexible graphite sheet is relatively high, while it is relatively very low in the xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d direction transverse to the upper and lower surfaces.
The foregoing situations are accommodated by the present invention.
The present invention provides a membrane electrode assembly for an electrochemical fuel cell comprising a pair of electrodes and an ion exchange membrane having opposed major surfaces positioned between the electrodes. At least one of the electrodes is formed of a sheet of a compressed mass of expanded graphite particles having a plurality of transverse fluid channels passing through the sheet between first and second opposed surfaces of the sheet, one of the opposed surfaces abutting the ion exchange membrane. The transverse fluid channels are formed by mechanically impacting an opposed surface of the graphite sheet to displace graphite within the sheet at predetermined locations to provide a channel pattern. The transverse fluid channels are adjacently positioned and separated by walls of compressed expanded graphite. The ion exchange membrane has catalyst metal selectively loaded on it in a manner complementary to the channel pattern of at least one of the electrodes.